The present invention relates to an oil cooler tube bundle positioning device for supporting and restraining an oil cooler tube bundle so that it can be safely oriented from one position to another, e.g., from a vertical position to a horizontal position for cleaning, servicing or storing.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical shell and tube heat exchanger 9 used for a conventional turbine generator lubrication oil system. The illustrated heat exchanger 9 includes a first tube bundle 10 and a first cooler shell 12. Tube bundle 10 is configured to be inserted into cooler shell 12. Heat exchanger 9 also includes a second cooler shell 13 in which a second tube bundle (not shown) is disposed.
Each tube bundle 10 includes a plurality of straight tubes 14 through which a cooling fluid (not shown) flows when heat exchanger 9 is operating to cool oil. The opposed ends of each tube 14 are fixed to an inlet tube sheet 16 and reverse tube sheet 18, respectively. A plurality of baffle plates 20 are distributed along the length of tube bundle 10 and are fixed to each other, but not to tubes 14, by a plurality of tie rods (not shown). Oil to be cooled flows into cooler shells 12 and 13 through an inlet (not shown) near the lower ends (with respect to FIG. 1) of each shell. The oil flows around baffle plates 20 and tubes 14 before exiting shells 12 and 13 through an outlet (not shown).
Tube bundle dimensions vary for different lubrication oil systems. However, a length of 700 cm. and a diameter of 80 cm. can be considered representative of the dimensions of a typical tube bundle. It will be appreciated that the present invention is not restricted to specific tube bundle dimensions.
The tube bundle structure described above is relatively flexible in the directions other than the axial direction of the tube bundle. Due to this flexibility and the relatively large size of a typical tube bundle, handling and orienting the tube bundle structure (e.g., during servicing or cleaning) has heretofore been difficult and cumbersome.
It is the current practice to attach a lifting eye 24 to inlet tube sheet 16 to pull tube bundle 10 from shell 12, vertically, for servicing. Tube bundles are usually serviced, cleaned, and stored in a horizontal position. However, heretofore no specific apparatus were provided for easily transferring a tube bundle from vertical to horizontal orientations to permit the bundle to be laid horizontally onto suitable supports. Past attempts at manipulating the typically cumbersome tube bundles from vertical to horizontal orientations have often resulted in damage to the tube bundles.